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Broncos snap counts against Baltimore

Here’s how the snap counts were spread around in the Denver Broncos loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

NFL: Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Our coaching staff had to use some untested players this week because of injuries to both Adam Jones and Tramaine Brock, but there were some other interesting player usages last game as well.

Our six game-day inactives for this one were: Kevin Hogan, Adam Jones, Dymonte Thomas, Alexander Johnson, Demarcus Walker, Elijah Wilkinson and Sam Jones

Four players were game-day active but did not get any offensive or defensive snaps: Joseph Jones, Keishawn Bierria, Max Garcia and Billy Turner. Garcia and Turner were only on the field for two snaps (both PATs) last game.

Offensive Snap Percentages

Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
Connor McGovern 100% 100% 100%
Matt Paradis 100% 100% 100%
Jared Veldheer 100% 48% 100%
Garett Bolles 100% 100% 100%
Ronald Leary 100% 100% 100%
Case Keenum 100% 100% 100%
Emmanuel Sanders 86% 82% 88%
Jeff Heuerman 81% 62% 60%
Demaryius Thomas 72% 89% 79%
Courtland Sutton 59% 82% 78%
Jake Butt 49% 39% 51%
Royce Freeman 39% 24% 43%
Phillip Lindsay 35% 42% 16%
Devontae Booker 26% 33% 38%
DaeSean Hamilton 19% 18% 22%
Andy Janovich 18% 17% 19%
Tim Patrick 12% 6% 3%
Billy Turner 3% 53% 0%
Matt LaCosse 1% 3% 1%

There were no real surprises here relative to last game. We did not run six offensive lineman on any play (Billy Turner got 0 offensive snaps). Tim Patrick, after making the game-winning play against Jokeland, got a grand total of two offensive snaps. Matt Lacosse got one offensive snap - giving him four in three games. I guess his spot on the game-day active roster is secured by his special teams snaps (13 in this game).

Defensive Snap Percentages

This is where our coaches made some interesting decisions. I’ll let you look at the data first and see if you have the same questions that I did.

Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
Justin Simmons 100% 100% 100%
Chris Harris 100% 97% 99%
Darian Stewart 100% 97% 88%
Bradley Roby 95% 89% 78%
Bradley Chubb 95% 74% 69%
Von Miller 88% 77% 68%
Brandon Marshall 88% 80% 46%
Derek Wolfe 82% 74% 68%
Adam Jones 67% 31% 0%
Todd Davis 65% 88% 72%
Domata Peko 44% 52% 49%
Will Parks 40% 22% 51%
Adam Gotsis 37% 43% 44%
Shane Ray 32% 28% 43%
Shelby Harris 26% 34% 42%
Zach Kerr 19% 32% 32%
Josey Jewell 12% 22% 53%
Shaquil Barrett 7% 26% 39%
Tramaine Brock 4% 35% 8%
Isaac Yiadom 0% 0% 43%
Shamarko Thomas 0% 0% 8%

Von Miller is arguably the best defensive player in the game. Why was he only on the field for 68% of the defensive snaps? Bradley Roby (who has played poorly this year by most measures) was only on the field for 78% of the defensive snaps. Isn’t he our #2 CB? Does that mean we had plays with Yiadom playing as the #2 CB? Or did we run plays with only one CB on the field with Parks or Simmons acting as a de facto CB?

According to PFF (and I trust them less and less each week), Bradley Roby is currently the 96th best CB in the league out of 103 that they rate. So by their analysis he is one of the worst CB’s in the league. Josey Jewell saw his snap% almost double in game two relative to game one and then in game three relative to game two. It would appear that the coaching staff is putting a lot of faith into the rookie, but it was necessitated by Brandon Marshall’s nagging injury. Isaac Yiadom saw his first significant action in a real NFL game and was not terrible (IMO) despite being attacked multiple times. Bradley Chubb saw his snap % reduced for the second game in a row. The fact that both he and Von were only on the field for two out of three defensive snaps really has me scratching my head. Can anyone explain that?

Sound off in the comments and let’s get this discussion started.